Sales

The Los Angeles city attorney's office filed a criminal complaint Monday against a Tarzana man accused of selling illegal cable converter boxes on the Internet. Peter Mulder Johnston, 43, could face a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Arraignment is scheduled for March 11. The city attorney's office alleges Johnston offered the "black boxes" on the World Wide Web, using the name "The Original Cable Guy."

Guitarist Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction and "Ink Master" fame has put his Hollywood loft up for sale at $899,000. The 1,570-square-foot unit features black glass-beaded wallpaper in the entry, 15-foot ceilings, blackout curtains and views of the Capitol Records building and the Hollywood sign. "It was one big space," said decorator Heidi Toll, who worked with Navarro to design the loft. So they carved out rooms within the open-plan space by using different finishes and features.

Squeezed by plummeting CD sales, retail giant Best Buy Co. has sacked the head of its troubled Musicland division and said it is closing about 110 mall-based music and movie stores. The shake-up follows the worst year in U.S. album sales in more than a decade. December sales at the Musicland division -- which operates such mall-based stores as Sam Goody and Suncoast -- declined 15% to about $350 million, the company said.

Never mind those embarrassing recalls. Automobile purchases are on the rise, one analyst says. Light-vehicle sales in the U.S. for April will be up 7.5%, according to a report just out from research group TrueCar . That's true even for General Motors, which spent much of the month embroiled in controversy involving the recall of cars with sometimes fatal ignition switch defects. GM sales for April 2014 are predicted to be up 6.5% from the same month last year. Toyota, which has had its own recall issues, was looking even better, with a predicted 13.5% increase in sales.

When it comes to sequels, "Cars 2" flies in the face of conventional Hollywood calculus. Its predecessor was the least well-reviewed of Pixar Animation Studios' 11 movies and among its poorest performers at the box office — at least, by the premier animation studio's sterling standards. One attribute distinguishes "Cars" from most other films: it sparked a licensing bonanza that continued to fuel merchandise sales long after Lightning McQueen, Mater and the movie's other anthropomorphic autos rolled out of the megaplex.

Like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, private sale sites are starting to carve out their own identities in the retail world. Here is the rundown on a few of the top sites. All times listed are Pacific time. Hautelook.com The vibe: Somewhere between Fred Segal and Kitson The goods: Tag Heuer watches, Rock & Republic jeans, Elizabeth & James shoe boots, Cosabella swimwear, Go Smile teeth whitening kits The game plan: Sales start at 8 a.m. and last for 2 days.

Grammys boost sales As a promotional showcase, the Grammy Awards remain a force. Early results from Nielsen SoundScan show that artists who performed on the CBS telecast Sunday night are experiencing a relatively major sales boost. The Black Eyed Peas, for example, are on track for a stellar week with the Interscope set "The E.N.D.": Over four days last week (Monday through Thursday), the album sold 18,000 copies. In just two days this week (Tuesday and Wednesday), the set scanned 26,000 copies.

Apple Inc. announced earnings largely in line with Wall Street's expectations as sales of iPhones climbed while the iPad remained flat. The company reported revenue in the fourth quarter of its 2013 fiscal year of $37.5 billion, up from $35.97 billion a year earlier. That number topped analysts' estimates of $36.84 billion and Apple's own guidance from last month of around $37 billion. "We're pleased to report a strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth-quarter revenue, including sales of almost 34 million iPhones," said Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, in a new s release.

Darden Restaurants Inc.'s efforts to spruce up Olive Garden's lagging sales, including national promotions and cost cuts, were “less effective than anticipated,” the company said while announcing its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings Friday. Similar tactics were also uninspiring at Darden's seafood chain, Red Lobster. After a brief respite during the spring, Italian brand Olive Garden returned to its pattern of poor same-store sales, which tumbled 1.8% over the quarter ended May 27 compared with a year earlier, while customer traffic fell 7.5% in May. Red Lobster's same-store sales slid 3.9% over the quarter and customer traffic in May slumped 7.8% With sales of $904 million, Olive Garden is Darden's largest chain.

Fewer home sales and rising interest rates have led to the nation's lowest level of mortgage lending in 14 years. Just $235 billion in home loans were started in the first three months of the year, the lowest figure recorded in a quarter since 2000, according to data from trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance. That's down nearly a quarter from the end of 2013 and more than half from the same period last year, when the housing market was heating up, especially in Southern California.

Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar writing screenwriter, and his wife, fashion designer Minnie Mortimer, have put their Brentwood home up for sale at $4.995 million. Set behind gates and stone columns, the shingle-clad house looks like it could be set in Nantucket. The 5,267 square feet of living space features wood-beam ceilings, a painted wood-paneled den/library, a corner sunroom, a media room, five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms. There's a balcony off the master suite. A covered brick patio extends the length of the back of the house and connects to the balcony area above by an exterior stairwell.

Apple investors were rejoicing this week after the company reported first-quarter earnings that were far better than expected, thanks to strong iPhone sales. Throw in an additional $30 billion that the company plans to spend on stock buybacks and dividends, and shareholders ended the day with big grins. Perhaps the only blemish on an otherwise big day for Apple were sales of iPads. Analysts were expecting iPad sales to fall to 19.38 million from 19.48 million in the same quarter a year ago. Instead, the company said it sold only 16.35 million units.

Big earnings. Big stock buyback. Big stock bump. On Thursday, investors cheered Apple's performance by sending its stock up by as much as 8.5% in early trading. The stock climbed to $ 569.50 at one point early Thursday, up from $524.75 the previous day. Riding a wave of strong iPhone sales, Apple on Wednesday reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $45.6 billion, well above analysts' consensus of $43.6 billion, and up from the...

New home sales plunged in March, another sign the spring home-buying season has started with a whimper. Sales of recently built single-family homes fell 14.5% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Sales dropped 13.3% compared with March 2013. The March data missed expectations, after economists predicted an increase from February as the home-buying season got underway. Quiz: How much do you know about mortgages?

Boosted by strong sales in its first financial quarter, Boeing Co. beat analysts' estimates largely due to an increased production rate of commercial jetliners. The Chicago aerospace giant reported a profit of $965 million, or $1.28 a share. That's down 12.7% from last year's first-quarter profit of $1.11 billion, or $1.44 a share. Boeing attributed the fall to a $330-million write-off related to changes in its pension plans and a one-time tax credit in 2013. The company's core earnings -- excluding retirement costs and the write-off -- rose to $1.76 per share, up from $1.73 during the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected core profit of $1.56 per share.

BMW broke company records for motorcycle and scooter sales in 2012, with a 2% rise in overall sales and a whopping 15.7% jump for its Husqvarna line. The German company announced Wednesday that sales were highest in Germany, followed by the U.S. and France. Overall, it shipped more than 106,000 bikes, up from 104,000 in 2011. BMW's popular R1200GS was the most successful model, with sales of more than 17,000 units in its final production year. Following it were the F800GS, with about 11,500 units, and the R1200GS Adventure, with 10,200.

Intuit Inc. Chief Executive Brad Smith said the company didn't bring its "A game" last year and will speed up development of mobile software and undertake other initiatives to turn more online shoppers into paying customers. Refining products such as TurboTax and QuickBooks can bring Intuit more paying customers and translate into at least 5 percentage points of sales growth, Smith said at a meeting with financial analysts Tuesday at Intuit headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. "It was a solid year — it was not our best year," Smith said of fiscal 2012, which ended in July.

"Frozen" isn't going anywhere. The hit soundtrack to Disney's animated feature film topped the Billboard 200 for the 11th time Wednesday, reflecting sales of 259,000 copies in the week that ended Sunday, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's the album's biggest one-week business yet, wrote Billboard's Keith Caulfield, who attributed the 94% boost over the previous week to Easter shopping, "which tends to lift sales of music that appeals to families and children. " PHOTOS: Upcoming Disney films, spring and beyond In extending its stint at No. 1, "Frozen" also broke the record held by "The Lion King" for the most weeks atop the chart for a soundtrack to an animated movie.

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration plans to begin regulating electronic cigarettes for the first time, banning sales to minors and requiring manufacturers to put health warnings on the nicotine-delivering devices that have become a multibillion-dollar industry, according to officials who described the agency's proposal. But the agency will stop short of steps that many public health advocates and some members of Congress have called for, including restrictions on television advertisements and flavorings, such as pumpkin spice or chocolate, that may target younger consumers, officials said.